Articles about Hope

A few years ago I wrote a letter to my younger, newly-married self to tell her everything I wished she would have known about love before she said yes. While the story below is about my marriage, the verses about love are universal and can be applied to every woman: married, single, divorced, older, younger -- it doesn't matter.
Love transcends ...

January 14, 2016 began as many days do in Hawaii -- wrapped in warm sunshine and blue skies flecked with clouds. After a glorious vacation with family visiting from the mainland, Shawn and Kelli Campbell and their four children settled back into routines within their Hawaii home. On that particular morning, the mood of the Campbell house was ...

First comes love, then comes marriage, then come cheap dinners and at-home date nights as we slowly toil away towards financial freedom!
After my husband and I were married and settled in to life as a team, we had no choice but to face some pretty inhospitable debt -- thanks, in part, to my graduate school loans. The overwhelm, stress, and fear ...

Thirty winters ago I stepped my right foot straight down on the upturned end of a wire hanger. The pain stuck around for nearly a month. After new skin finally covered the puncture wound, which rested in between the “piggy who went to market” and the “piggy who stayed home,” my foot felt perfectly fine. Day after day, I walked, ran, skipped and ...

My friend is a painter, and while telling me of a recent commission, we happened into a conversation about her process. As she began teaching me her steps, I reached for a pen and paper to record her every word. I was fascinated. I have an untrained eye and virtually no experience with the creative process of a painter. I do know it took Michael ...

“To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven.” {Ecclesiastes 3:1, ESV} These are the words printed beside my face in the “Seniors” section of my 2010 high school yearbook.
Each year the seniors would choose a quote that would forever mark their legacy in the high school world, and these words from Ecclesiastes ...

When we moved back home this summer, after 18 years away to plant a church I thought I’d done the grieving I had needed to do. I thought I’d embraced change. We even had the Pinterest-inspired art up in our house to prove it: a subway sign with all the street names we’ve lived on since we were married 13 years ago. It wouldn’t be such a big deal to ...

She curls her body into mine, as tightly pressed as she can get. She is all flannel nightie and coconut shampoo and girl. They fight for space with Mom in the middle, each flanking me and claiming a side. He wraps one tiny arm around my belly and grins. It’s his favorite spot, tucked into my squish. He rests his chin on my arm and looks up at me ...

“The story of your life
is the story of the long and brutal assault on your heart
by the one who knows what you could be and fears it.”
John Eldredge, Waking the Dead: The Glory of a Heart Fully Alive
It almost seems like a dream to me, that season. I wouldn't call it a nightmare exactly, but it was dark and desperate, and I couldn't find my ...

I got a Christmas card from my mom.
You don't know how significant that is.
I know, it sounds so normal to get a card, right? But for me, it's not normal. Normal for me has been having a mom who didn't know how to be a mom. Her wounds clouded her ability to parent; her heartache led her to alcohol, and alcohol led to the near destruction of ...